Toronto Blue Jays

12/15/2012

Stella enjoys a warm May afternoon laying on the front lawn of their east end Toronto home, with both her Mommies and her brother Sam, May 30, 2012. At two years old Stella was diagnosed with a inoperable brain tumour, doctors had given her three months to live. More on Stella here.

09/02/2012

Budi, a 6-year-old Orangutan at Toronto Zoo. Budi is one of two sumatran orangutans at the Toronto Zoo who are being trained to use an iPad. Currently, they love to watch videos of other orangutans but the hope is to use the devices for training and learning. (Rick Madonik)

Rick Madonik, Staff Photographer

As usual, August fell somewhere between the feast or famine when it came to photography at the Toronto Star. Steve Russell continued his endless effort of supplying great pics from LONDON 2012. The Olympics dominated the sports story for the month of August, whereas the discovery of various body parts in Mississauga and Scarborough, dominated the news angle.

06/01/2012

TARA WALTON - Ottawa's Helene Campbell poses for photos in her Toronto apartment Monday May 28, 2012 where she is recovering from a double lung transplant. In April Campbell underwent a double lung transplant at Toronto General Hospital. During her time on the waiting list Helene became Canada's greatest advocate for organ donation, sparking hundreds to sign up through the power of twitter.

05/01/2012

LUCAS OLENIUK - Jasmin Razak, centre, joined her fellow community members to discuss how the Regent Park revitalization effort has affected lives. Razak, a long-time Regent Park resident, recently moved from an old building to a new building.

04/02/2012

Once again, The Star photo department (as edited by Steve Russell) offers up the Best Pictures of the Month. From city politics to news to features to sports, Star photogs cover a variety of assignments bringing their unique eye to the photograph.

TARA WALTON - A Toronto Police Officer stands watch over a taped off area on the edge of Toronto's Don Valley Golf Course Thursday March 1, 2012 near the 401 and Yonge Street . Human remains were found in the area on Tuesday and are rumoured to be those of missing girl Mariam Makhniashvili, who disappeared Monday September 14, 2009 before school.

02/29/2012

February, the shortest month did not leave the Toronto Star photo department short of good news or great pictures.

The Photo Department is now under the direction of a new Visuals Editor, Taras Slawnych. We are pretty excited about that.

We have also won four Society for News Design awards of excellence for photography. So before we get into the February highlights, here are the four winners:

LUCAS OLENIUK - A protestor, unconscious and not breathing, was rushed away from Bahraini security forces after being shot in the head moments earlier. A group of Shiite anti-regime demonstrators drew fire from Bahrain security forces near Manama when they tried to march downtown to the Pearl Square from the town of Budaiya Friday evening. A state sanctioned pro-regime rally was underway in downtown Manama when the clash occurred. Read about the story behind this image here!